Commercial woodworking machines are commonly provided with built-in systems, usually in the nature of endless conveyors, for discharging the products of the industrial machine. For example, Graham, U.S. Pat. No. 715,054, shows a sawing machine wherein the boards being sawed are returned for resawing by means of an integral slatted conveyor mounted below the table upon which the boards are sawed. Prescott, U.S. Pat. No. 762,653, shows a discharge conveyor for a band saw mill. Again, the discharge unit is in the form of an endless conveyor which is arranged to receive the cut boards.
Pettibone, U.S. Pat. No. 1,978,142, discloses a sawing rig for cutting boards from logs, which is provided with a conveyor mechanism for carrying away the cut boards and wood fragments from the saw as they fall down upon it.
Oleson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,007,654, shows a sawing apparatus of the pulpwood slasher type, which has a deck substantially in the form of a right triangle, and its side which corresponds to the hypotenuse has a series of circular saws. The saws have a lead such that when a cut is completed a wanted length drops onto a take-away conveyor as it is cut free.
Gottschalk, U.S. Pat. No. 1,584,029, discloses a cordwood saw with a conveyor directly mounted thereon so that the conveyor will discharge the wood that has been sawed to any desired locality. The conveyor is described as detachably mounted, but in order to detach it from the saw the machine has to be partially disassembled.
In general, therefore, endless conveyors have been widely used industrially, not only in the log-cutting industry, but also in other industries, for discharging and conveying away products as they are formed. For example, Damant, U.S. Pat. No. 9,060, shows discharge conveyors for a lozenge-cutting machine. Monfort, U.S. Pat. No. 106,390 illustrates the use of endless conveyors with a tile-cutting machine. Kinney, U.S. Pat. No. 164,186, illustrates the use of endless conveyors for handling straight-cut tobacco. Huck, U.S. Pat. No. 2,138,406, describes a mechanism for cutting and delivering sheets from a web with the delivering effected by means of an endless conveyor. McFarland et al, U.S. Pat. No. 2,148,379, show a takeoff mechanism for handling shingles severed from a sheet. Even a candy-making machine has an endless takeoff and delivering mechanism in Morrison, U.S. Pat. No. 2,640,446.
While, therefore, takeoff conveyor mechanisms have been integrated into the large and often fixed commercial apparatus employed in many industries, such devices are not commonly found in conjunction with smaller woodworking machines of types used both commercially and by the handyman or the hobbyist, such as circular saws, band saws, jointers, routers, planers, and the like. These latter woodworking machines, for the most part consist only of the cutting mechanism appropriately mounted upon a table, with no automatic discharge means associated with it. In consequence, the user must use his hands frequently to remove the cut or worked wood, and injuries are not infrequent.
To illustrate: Safety experts have long been aware that most table saws are operated without the safety covers over the saw blade itself. All dado usage and rabbet operation of the saw cannot be accomplished with the safety guard in place--therefore most of the safety guards are left off all of the time. Unfortunately, in the common mode of use of such table saws, the sized material when pushed through the saw, falls off the end of the table and can cause a dangerous condition wherein the board may come in contact with the back of the saw blade and cause a "kick-back", thereby injuring the operator--sometimes even fatally. Reference may be had in this connection to Survey of Power Saw Accidents Resulting in Injuries, 1978. U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, May, 1983, which cites a very high incidence of injuries resulting from such saw kick-back.
In accordance with the foregoing, it may be regarded an object of the present invention, to provide a simple, highly dependable, portable, and easily attached off feed conveyor, for use with woodworking mill machines such as table saws, shapers, radial arm saws, jointers, planers, or similar machines that perform milling action on materials fed through same.
It is a further object of the invention, to provide an off feed conveyor of the foregoing character, which can be easily used with home woodworking machines; which can be contact-attached to them in a simple and rapid manner, and can similarly be detached rapidly without any disassembly; and which is self-sustaining so that the takeoff device may be separately stored as to not add to the bulk of the woodworking machine when it is not in use.
It is yet another object of the invention, to provide a detachable, self-sustaining conveyor device of the character indicated, which is adjustable with respect to speed and height, so that it can readily cooperate with the specific machine with which it is to be associated.